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I rubbed some toothpaste over my teeth in an effort to deal with the morning breath and pulled on a pair of Mack’s sweatpants and a shirt. The knee and wrist pads were easy enough to find in his closet and, once again, there were two sets: one pink and one black. Like he couldn’t choose between the two.
“Such a goober,” I said with a smile.
Now, I just had to decide which pair to test out first. The rational part of me said the inline skates. I’d be able to find my feet quicker on them rather than the quad skates. However, that pink and gold leopard print was calling to me. It couldn’t be that hard—and Mack had promised sponge baths if I broke something, which wasn’t a bad consolation prize.
There was still a small voice in the back of my head that told me slow wasn’t going to be enough to save us, that we were still doomed whether we wanted to admit it or not. The prospect of losing him, properly losing him, made my stomach twist. I didn’t want it to happen, but that didn’t change the fact it would. It was the cycle, and it could only go one way. To its natural, inevitable conclusion. I would have to deal with it, sooner rather than later, but not today. I wanted to live in denial just a little longer.
No more thinking about this. Not now. Not when I had skates to test out. I stuffed my feet into them, thoroughly enjoying the perfectly snug fit. I laced them up, put on my knee and wrist pads because, as much as I would enjoy a sponge bath from Mack, I didn’t actually want to break anything on my first attempt.
“Oh, shit!” I squeaked as I pushed up to standing and wobbled. “I can do this, it’s fine. This is fine.” I pushed off my right foot, then left, finding a rhythm as I did a loop of the living room, then through his kitchen. Oh yes, I could definitely get used to this.
By the time Mack shuffled out of his bedroom a couple of hours later, in a pair of low slung gray sweatpants, I was attempting to spin after I managed to work out how to transition to backwards skating. It had not all been smooth, as the blooming bruise on my butt could attest, but it turned out it wasn’t as different from ice skating as I thought it would be.
I was gifted with a wide, albeit sleepy, smile as I completed a backwards loop of the couch and squeaked to a stop in front of him. My cheeks were hurting from smiling so much.
“Have you been up all night?” he asked, arms curling around my back. I pressed up onto my stoppers and kissed him hard. He squeezed me closer, hands moving down over my ass.
“What was that for?”
“Just because.” I shrugged. “Might have something to do with how fucking good you look in sweatpants. Also, I love my Christmas present.” I wiggled a little for emphasis.
“And I’m not even done yet,” he purred, nuzzling into my neck. I tipped my head to give him better access, melting against him as he nipped and kissed.
“What?” The word wobbled as he bit the junction of my neck and shoulder.
“There’s one more surprise.”
“Seriously?” What else could there possibly be? I tugged on his hair until he was facing me. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“Nope.” He kissed my nose. “It’s too much fun watching you squirm.”
“Sadist,” I said and he winked. “Well, as much as I’d like to stay here and squirm for you, I need to get some clothes.”
“What’s wrong with what you’re wearing?” His eyebrows wagged. He liked me in his clothes. I liked being in his clothes, too, but I couldn’t stay in them forever.
“Aside from the fact they’re yours, and I don’t have underwear on? No, no, don’t look at me like that.” I slapped his chest. “I need to go home. I can bring you coffee and bagels on the way back.”
The heat in his eyes shifted to something very different and my pulse spiked. I could see the words sitting there, just waiting to be given life.Maybe you should have some clothes here then.He’d say it like a joke, like it wasn’t a big deal. But it was a big deal. It was a really big fucking deal. Too much. Too soon. I said I wanted things to go slower and all we’d done since was have a whole lot of sex. Having all the sex wasn’t a bad thing, admittedly, but moving in? That was too much.
I rolled away to perch on the arm of the couch and started unlacing my skates, words tumbling out of my mouth in a rush. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about living with him. I had. It had been sitting there in the back of my head since our first date. But thinking about it and actually doing something about it, even talking about it, that was different.
“I won’t be too long,” I said, now striding into the bedroom to find yesterday’s clothes. “Maybe I can even swing past Cream and Sugar for some of those cinnamon buns.” I was trying to distract him, he had to know it.
He leaned against the door-jamb, arms crossed over his wide, well-defined chest. I had no godly idea why that move was so hot but the door jamb lean, plus the low hanging gray sweatpants and no shirt, was making me feel more scrambled than I already was. He wasn’t saying anything, though, just letting me dress and ramble. I’d moved onto work topics, they felt safer when my head and heart were this out of control.
“I’ll be back before you know it.” I stretched up to kiss him, the need for more was there, simmering under the surface but I pulled away. Space. I needed a little space.
“I’ll be here.”
I was stilla messy jumble of warring emotions by the time I got to Cream and Sugar, toting my overnight bag. I’d packed it and unpacked it at least three times before leaving my apartment. In the end, practicality won out. If I wound up staying at Mack’s again tonight, then I was going to need clothes tomorrow. I even brought my toothbrush, which would be coming straight back home with me, and not living in his bathroom. I couldn’t even entertain thenot yet, that tried to tack itself onto the end of that sentence.
Unlike every other time I’d been here, Harley was not at the coffee machine, which felt oddly jarring, or maybe that was just my mood. Despite not being able to see her, I could still hear her infectious laughter floating out from behind the double saloon doors that led to the kitchen. She appeared a second later balancing two plates on each arm.
“Chase!” she said, her face breaking into a wide smile. “How you doin’, girl?”
Considering my current state of mind, I wasn’t actually sure how to answer that. Thankfully, I didn’t need to. Harley delivered the plates to a waiting table and slipped back behind the counter.
“You want it iced today?”
